ASU Basketball: Tournament hopes fading as Sun Devils fall to Colorado
After defeating Pac-12 leaders Washington Saturday, ASU basketball followed up that performance with a disappointing 77-73 loss at Colorado.
The Arizona State basketball team’s hopes of going dancing in March took yet another hit as they dropped to 7-5 in conference play with a 77-73 loss to Colorado.
After handing Washington their first Pac-12 loss of the season, the Sun Devils looked prime to continue their string of wins before running into a pair of sophomores on the Buffaloes side.
The duo of Tyler Bey and McKinley Wright IV combined for over half of the team’s scoring output with 46 points between the pair with 22 and 24 respectively.
Bey and Wright constantly challenged an ASU defense that spent the majority of the night in a 2-3 zone that looked to neutralize the offensive weapons for Colorado.
The Sun Devils neutralized the majority of weapons, before the outbursts of both Bey and Wright, who combined to shoot an efficient 18-of-25 from the field.
While Bey contributed on the scoreboard, the sophomore was also key in the team outrebounding the conference leaders in rebounds in ASU as he pulled down 17 of the team’s 38 rebounds compared to the Sun Devils 34.
Arizona State seemed to have multiple chances through the second half of play to pull away after entering the half at a tie of 32-32.
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The last of the moments came in the midst of a 7-2 run in favor of the Sun Devils as they were up by five points with just under 15-minutes remaining before a Remy Martin travel would be the first of many mishaps for the team.
After having their chance to run away, Wright fought his team back into the game hitting big shot after big shot including a three-point shot over Zylan Cheatham with 2:41 left to put the Buffaloes ahead 66-58.
The shot would prove to put the game just enough out of reach, as the inconsistent Sun Devils found themselves on the wrong side of a game they were favored in on paper.
For Colorado, the team adds yet another win to their Pac-12 resume as they currently are on a four-game winning streak as they look to earn a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
On the flip side of things, Arizona State is looking at yet another Pac-12 series split, one that has become all too common for the team, a trend that is hurting the team’s chances at making at having another chance to participate in March Madness.
At this point, the Sun Devils are looking at two ways to make the tournament with both options being extremely difficult tasks for a team that has shown so much promise yet so much inconsistently on the season.
The first of the paths includes winning out or dropping at most one of the team’s six remaining conference games with four of those matchups, including this Saturday’s matchup against Utah, taking place on the road.
The latter of the options would be for the team to win the Pac-12 tournament, an equally daunting but doable task that may be even more difficult if the team does not earn a first-round bye.
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While the options are both tall in their order, the team has shown in victories over Kansas and Washington that they have the potential to be the top team in the conference. Now it is just a matter of bringing that level of play each and every night.